28 March 2011

Proof

Just to prove that my Shirley jetted halfway round the world to be with her Yorkshire pud, here she is earlier today in the grounds of the lavish Grand Palace, Bangkok. It was here, in the 1860's, that the American governess, Anna Leonowens, allegedly sought to "civilise" the court of Siam's absolute monarch - King Monghut. Her story was transformed into a musical and film in 1956 - "The King and I" - which even today is still most offensive to Siamese patriots. After all, sophisticated "civilisation" existed in this part of the world when America still belonged to the buffalo.

We had professional Thai massages in the Wat Pho Temple complex then after some attempted shenanigans from uncharacteristically deceptive taxi drivers, we caught a cab with an honest driver all the way back to the Ratchayothin area of North Bangkok.

We needed to be back early for our dinner date with the owners of the Serene B&B. At five, we were duly driven to the district of Nonthaburi where they have a lovely little "river house". It has a wooden terrace on stilts right over the Chao Phraya River. Watching boats go by, we drank fine wines and ate a lovely homemade Thai meal. Very delicious. Followed by fresh pineapple and water melon.

The owners, "Staborn" and Thida, speak exceptionally good English and we chatted happily with them for three hours or so. Turns out that Staborn's father was once the king's royal dentist and played a leading role in developing dentistry as an academic subject in Thai universities

Shirley's gone to bed early. After all, she's still wrestling with jet lag. Tomorrow I'm taking her back to Elephant Island - Koh Chang - near the Cambodian border. We will need to be up at 5am for the bus departs at six thirty. I may have trouble blogging again before next Sunday but I'll try. Going back to the beach, the palm trees and the luke-warm waters of The Gulf of Thailand. As I said before - somebody's got to do it!
Mural detail - The Grand Palace

6 comments:

  1. She looks so happy and smiley - beautiful picture! and I love the way you said 'my' Shirley....enjoy your time together.

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  2. I bet she thought it was more than worth it! Enjoy. :)

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  3. You obviously have superimposed a snapshot of Shirley, who is still in Sheffield, on an image of a local Thai tourist attraction, and as we speak you are undoubtedly doing something illegal, immoral, or fattening.

    We stay-at-homes cannot be fooled so easily.

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  4. Surely the company on the Sunday was more impressive?...

    A nice cool day for sightseeing I noticed.

    Not bad here either- hotel nice, prices reasonable- some enormously interesting exhibits about 70s Cambodia.

    Well worth an hour flight for you one weekend in the near future I should say.

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  5. so glad you posted a photo of mrs Pud
    I was hoping you would.... and was hoping that I would recognise her.... bloody didnt though!!!
    bugger!!

    take care matey
    jx

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  6. Hope Shirley has a nice time. Sounds like you might have missed her a little!
    Cheers
    Helen

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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